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July 10, 2024

Georgetown Global Dialogues Foster Student Engagement, Enthusiasm, and Optimism

During the April 2024 Georgetown Global Dialogues (GGD), students on the Hilltop and Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) had the opportunity to interact with leading intellectuals from the Global South across a range of topics, from ecological belonging to women’s rights and international diplomacy.

Ece Temelkuran engages with students at the GGD ecological belonging workshop.
Ece Temelkuran engages with students at the GGD ecological belonging workshop.

Not only did these students participate in the week’s events, they prepared questions for expert panels, shared their insights in an online forum and a student workshop devoted to ecological belonging and the climate crisis, and served as promotional partners.

“The Georgetown Global Dialogues seek to elevate the voices of young people, bringing them into conversation with leading thinkers and with one another,” says Thomas Banchoff, GGD co-convener and director of Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, which organized the week’s events.

Contributing Diverse Perspectives

Before and after the dialogues, 21 undergraduate and graduate students from across the university’s campuses wrote insightful reflection essays for the GGD Forum, an online platform for shared reflection around the key topics of the dialogues including degrowth and the climate crisis, cosmopolitanism, and the future of democracy and the global political economy.

Responding to GGD Fellow Ece Temelkuran’s call for secular hope, Rosario Vázquez Ruiz (L’24) discusses faith as a solution for democracy, but only when in concert with a community. “Young people need faith to fight for a better future, but they also need people to support them,” he writes.

Luke Hughes (SFS’27) contributed to the GGD Forum and participated in a working group to help develop incisive questions for the week’s panel discussions. “Being a student partner for GGD reminded me that issues facing our world today cannot be accurately discussed simply with facts and data,” he says.

“If there is one thing that can transform students into the Jesuit ideal of women and men for others, it is dialogues such as GGD.”

The Georgetown Global Dialogues also spotlighted student perspectives during the panel on “Reviving Cosmopolitanism through a Cultural and Spiritual Turn,” which featured Asma Shakeel (SFS’24), an international history major at GU-Q and 2024 Rhodes Scholar-Elect from India.

Asma Shakeel discusses the role of universities in advancing cosmopolitanism.
Asma Shakeel discusses the role of universities in advancing cosmopolitanism.

Alongside GGD Fellow Ranjit Hoskote and Berkley Center Senior Fellow José Casanova, Shakeel emphasized the importance of universities as spaces that can facilitate interfaith, intercultural, and interpolitical dialogue.

“This is the chance for both university students but also instructors to meet one another and at a common bridge, find a common place where their ideas can intersect but also find areas where they don’t, where they disagree, and accepting this disagreement with a smile.”

Dynamic Dialogue on Ecological Belonging

Another highlight of the dialogues was a student-focused workshop on ecological belonging and the climate crisis. Co-sponsored by Georgetown’s Earth Commons and Office of Sustainability, this event featured a panel discussion with GGD Fellow Kohei Saito, a leading degrowth advocate, and breakout groups that explored concrete ways to advance ecological belonging in practice—with a focus on the practical impact that young people can have in effecting positive change.

Eighteen Hilltop students gathered in person while 14 students joined via Zoom from Jesuit universities around the world, including Georgetown University in Qatar, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (Peru), and Ateneo de Manila (Philippines).

Aminah Koshul (G’25) participated in the workshop and engaged with notions of degrowth and conscious consumption on the GGD Forum. “The intention to disengage from exploitative and unnecessarily wasteful practices is powerful when taken in aggregate,” she writes.

Hands-On Professional Development

Georgetown students also served as volunteers during the entire week of GGD. Their invaluable events management support included promoting events to the campus community and day-of logistical assistance.

Ellie Knapman (G’24), the Berkley Center’s editorial graduate fellow for the 2023-2024 academic year, contributed to several stages of the dialogues, including topic research, stakeholder identification, and note-taking during the panel sessions.

“What I will take away from GGD is proof that the saying ‘it takes a village’ is not simply a cliché. Everyone at the Berkley Center had a role to play, and given the outcome it is clear that each person worked their hardest to ensure GGD was a success,” she says.

Knapman also appreciates how these professional development opportunities dovetailed with the intellectual goals of the dialogues. Students were not just listening to or witnessing the conversation, but playing an active role in shaping that future.

“The panelists showed me that change for the better is possible, and they placed a great deal of hope in the students of Georgetown, and young people in general.”

Berkley Center Director of Student Programs Nick Scrimenti (C’18) shares how the center strives to create programs for students that are global in scope, engage actively and constructively with diversity, and are rooted in questions of justice and the common good.

“We are grateful to all of our student volunteers for making GGD such a success and for bringing a level of critical engagement, enthusiasm, and optimism that is truly inspiring. We are looking forward to building on the relationships we've made as GGD grows and evolves.”